3/14/09 walk around camden, fabric at night

In the early afternoon JJ, Nate, and I ventured into Camden Town to do our research for our British History and Culture presentation. JJ randomly decided to get his ears pierced, and we ate at a really terrible Thai restaurant, which we found out afterwards was actually all vegetarian food and that is why it tasted like crap. Walking around the streets of Camden markets on the weekend was an interesting experience, as there were lots of younger kids obviously into the alternative kind of lifestyle, with ridiculous hair and lots of body piercings and tattoos. What was really interesting was that the residential areas of Camden were almost completely devoid of people, even though they were only a block or two away from the main markets. We also walked through Hyde Park, which had like 10 million different football(soccer) fields and then headed back to the flat.

From London - March, April

At night we made our way to the infamous London club, Fabric, around 10pm. But we had to wait outside for a while since it actually opened at 11pm. We had a couple of beers while we waited and two random Russian girls came up and asked us if we were going inside. We started a conversation and the two were apparently flight attendants on some Russian airline I had never heard of before.

After getting inside we all found out that the people who you have to pay to get in are total dicks. They wouldn't accept our international student ID cards for the student discount rate, so we had to pay full cover (16 pounds wtf). The club was very good, but not the best I have been to so far. It had three different dancing areas with a decent amount of dance floor space, and was moderately crowded. JJ and I randomly ran into the Russian girls again on the dance floor so we danced and hung out with them for a while and then headed back to the flat after waiting forever to get on a night bus and having a deep conversation.

From London - March, April

3/13/09 not much

Not much going on today. Watched some more Skins, aka the best tv show evar.

3/12/09 Stonehenge and Hampton Court

We traveled to Stonehenge, and learned some of its lengthy history, as it was apparently used as some kind of burial ground and/or calendar. Stonehenge was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. We were able to go up right into the circle and touch the stones, which was pretty cool.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court

Next we headed to Hampton Court, which was a psuedo-castle where royalty lived in medieval times. It had very elaborate architecture and a massive garden complete with fountains and lots of wildlife. There was also a hedge maze to walk around in, but it was very easy and we figured it out in like 5 minutes.

From Stonehenge, Hampton Court

3/11/09 class, hip hop dance at night

Went to another hip-hop dance class at the YMCA tonight, had a great time.

3/10/09 class, Duet for One play

Class in the morning and then off to see the play Duet for One. The play was boring, as it was basically just a continuing discussion between one woman and her psychiatrist. Not to mention at some points the over-acting was a little ridiculous. Afterwards I worked on my theater paper that is due tomorrow.

3/9/09 back to london

Took the train to Copenhagen in the morning and then flew from there back to London.

3/8/09 Quick trip to Copenhagen, visiting Nikolas

Today we took a daytrip to Copenhagen, Denmark but had no idea where to go or what to do there. We walked along the water but it was cold and windy and lots of stuff was closed because it was Sunday so we headed back after an hour or so.

From Sweden Trip

We headed by train to the town of Akarp where Nikolas and his family live. Their house was very nice and was undergoing some renovations. They served us some tasty lo-mein kind of noodles and I had Swedish kafe(coffee) which was pretty strong. We went out to Big Bowl in Malmo with Nikolas and I bowled a 141, but JJ barely beat me with a 144. There wasn't much to do in town since it was a Sunday so we headed back to Rikard's apartment and packed our stuff.

3/7/09 Lund, night out

This morning Rikard showed us around the college town Lund, that has over 40,000 students going to school there. We saw parts of the campus and went into the monstrous 14th century Cathedral, which had an ornate and intricate clock that had seasons, days, and more on it similar to the one in Prague. There was also a crypt downstairs where some ancient royalty were buried. We walked around the streets some more and I tried Swedish hard candy but didn't like it.

From Sweden Trip

From Sweden Trip

From Sweden Trip

Rikard drove us back to Monica's after picking up his apartment keys from JJ's mom at Brit's place. For dinner we had grilled chicken and I tried some brie cheese on a flat cracker with marmalade on top, which was pretty good.

We headed back to Rikard's apartment and had a few drinks before heading out to Anna's apartment. We got there and talked for a while, and apparently one of her friends worked for Carlsberg as some kind of manager and gave me his business card in between him high-fiving everyone. Anna suggested going to Debaser, a club near the center of Malmo that catered towards a somewhat older crowd. Apparently some woman there was having her 30th birthday party, so it was a little awkward being there with mostly older people and we then headed over to a club called Rumble, which was nearby and catered to a younger crowd more our age.

The club was good overall, and had two separate main dancing areas, one with more electronic/techno music and the other one with more chill/reggae music. JJ, Nate and I danced for a while in the techno area. We met some cool Swedish girls, a redhead (Johanna) and blonde (Emily), who we talked with for a while. Johanna was 23 and studying in Malmo as a student and had taken a road trip in the United States a few years back. Her friend Emily was 21 and was studying in Lund, where we had been earlier that day. We didn't realize that the club closed around 3am, so we ended up waiting forever in the coat check line before we could leave.

3/6/09 helsingborg and helsinger

In the morning we had eggs and Swedish flat bread for breakfast and then met another family friend, Brit, who drove us out to Helsingborg. Nate, JJ, and I first walked over to the main shopping street and wandered around into different stores. Then we walked up the hillside to see the keep that overlooked the city. The view of the city was great from there, even though the keep wasn't a full size castle or anything.

From Sweden Trip

From Sweden Trip

Next we took a short ferry ride over the water to Helsinger in Denmark. We walked around the streets for a bit but everything in the shops was relatively expensive because of the exchange rate. We also saw Hamlet's castle from a distance, but it looked like there was construction going on near it so we didn't get closer. We traveled back to Helsingborg by ferry and walked along the docks until we found a small Swedish restaurant. I ordered sill – traditional Swedish marinated red herring – and it was fairly spicy but I enjoyed it.

From Sweden Trip

We walked up the hillside for a while until we got to Brit's apartment and met JJ's mom and Brit there. After talking with them for a little bit we headed back to the train station and took a train to Malmo and then a bus from there to Looma. At Monica's house we had this tasty quiche pie kind of thing for dinner, which had ham and mushrooms and broccoli inside it. Over dinner conversation I found it interesting that Swedish students take 9 years of English in school because no other countries speak Swedish. They also learn up to 2 other languages in school, usually French or German, but Spanish is becoming more popular. We were all tired so we decided to not go out and watched Snakes on a Plane on TV instead.

3/5/09 Exploring Malmo, staying in Looma

In the morning we met JJ's Swedish friend Nikolas, and he showed us around Malmo. First we went to visit his other friend, Juan, who owned his own clothing screening business. He showed us where he screened the tshirts and sweatshirts and the different equipment used, which was pretty neat. Afterwards we went clothing shopping on the shopping street and malls in Malmo.

From Sweden Trip

Next we picked up JJ's mom and headed over to their friend Monica's house in Looma to have a traditional Swedish dinner with tasty pasty and meatballs. After that we drove back to Malmo with Nikolas, who dropped us off at some random bar while he went to work on a tv project. There was almost no one there though since it was like 7pm on a thursday, so we left quickly. We tried to call Monica to come pick us up, but my phone gave some error and apparently couldn't call her number. So we had to wander around Malmo in the blustering chilly wind until we eventually wound up at the train/bus station.

It took us a while to figure out how the bus station worked and we finally got on a bus back to Looma. From there it was a bit of a walk since we got off two stops too early. When we got back to the house we had some tea and bread and had interesting conversations with Monica and JJ's mom about stories of their travels driving through Europe when they were our age. I tried some Swedish flatbread with caviar from a tube on top, but it was too salty for me.

3/4/09 to sweden

We landed in Copenhagan, Denmark and took the speedy train over the water to Malmo, Sweden (3rd or 4th largest city in Sweden). I met jj's mom at their relative's house and JJ's cousin Rikard. I found out that Rikard works with "connect" a company that connects entrepreneurs with venture capitalists. We talked about his business for a bit and then had dinner, which was a kind of lasagna, followed by ice cream cake type of thing for desert.

Rikard drove us around town talked about history and pointed out parks, and different areas nearby. Afterwards, we headed over to his apartment to unpack and stay the night. Rikard speaks almost perfect English, and I found it interesting that he preferred to read novels in English instead of Swedish (Lord of the Rings in particular). The reasoning he gave me was that in the English language there are many more ways to describe things than in Swedish. For example, when you want to talk about how a character said something to another character you could write: retort, say, told, exclaim, or announced.

3/3/09 Ruckl Crystal tour, flight back to London

We had to be ready to leave the hotel by 8am, which sucked. We got on a bus and headed out about 40 mins to the Ruckl Crystal factory. They make crystal glass in just about every size and shape possible for everything from cups to trophies. The representative of the company wasn't the best at English so it was hard to follow what she was saying, plus everyone was tired as hell, even Davis was doing the sleepy head bob. Although it was interesting when she started talking about how many other Crystal making companies were going out of business around the Czech Republic.

Furthermore, the representative said their business partner Waterford Crystal, the number one Crystal maker in the United States, went bankrupt recently and still owes Ruckl Crystal a significant amount of money. Crystal glass is the epitome of unnecessary luxury spending that is and will continue to have a huge drop in demand as the global depression continues. Waterford was able to sell their Crystal for higher prices due to their brand reputation, and probably had lower costs due to economies of scale. All of this means that Ruckl Crystal could very well not be in business a year or two from now.

Walking through the factory was fairly depressing as the working conditions were poor. On the glass blowing floor they wore no protective gear due to the temperature, even though they were working with molten glass. However, they were allowed to drink on the job, and the company provided them with beer saying that it “was the best for keeping them hydrated because of its vitamins”. Since when did that happen? The alcohol in the beer actually dehydrates you more. I also saw a worker light a cigarette off of the molten glass.

From Prague Trip

On the glass cutting floor the workers labored with no masks, protective eyewear, or gloves. The company said the workers preferred this because they lost precision when wearing gloves and other protective gear... but the glass particles floating in the air contain high amounts of lead and are not healthy to breathe in significant amounts of. For all this intensive labor, the workers only received 600-700 Euros a month. I guess as Americans we take for granted the privileges and opportunities we have compared to other places around the world.

I bought a souvenir glass bird in the gift shop and then we headed to a small town and the restaurant Restaurace & Penzion “Ve Stoleti”. We all had a traditional Czech dish of egg soup, beef with a sweet sauce and dumplings, and a cake that tasted like golden graham cereal. It was all very delicious, the Czech make really good food. Then I was dropped off at the airport with JJ and Nate at 2:30pm and waited around forever since our flight wasn't until 9pm.

3/2/09 jewish quarter, prague presentations, night out

At 9am we left for a tour of the Jewish Quarter of Prague. We stopped at a few museums and synagogues along the way and were given way too much background history information for so early in the morning. In particular the inside of one had the names of all the people who were taken to extermination camps in World War II written on almost every wall from floor to ceiling and it was a very daunting and somber sight. 90% of the Jewish population in Prague were exterminated, but the Nazis chose to leave most of their synagogues in tact and collected Jewish artifacts in order to make a museum for the “exterminated race”. We also visited the Jewish ghetto graveyard, which had 12 different levels of graves underground because the Jews were not given any other area to bury their dead. This graveyard was very unique because it had a multitude of tombstones basically leaning on each other.

From Prague Trip

After we headed back for lunch at the hotel, it was finally time to do the Prague Presentation. Overall I felt our presentation went well, we went a little bit too long and it was fairly boring at some parts, even Davis was nodding off, but we did the best we could with the material we had. My group performed well on making sure to speak slowly and clearly so the LEROS manager could understand us. The LEROS manager was very nice and after commenting on our recommendations he gave us a sample bag of a variety of LEROS teas.

For the most part I felt that the Prague Projects gave some valuable experience of problems that would come up in a real-life business consulting project like vague objectives, hard to find research, stressful deadlines, less than helpful group members, and presentations to the client. However, if we did something wrong it wasn't a big deal, since we couldn't be fired or anything. At the end Dvorsky said that there would likely be internship possibilities to live and work in Prague for a month next summer, and I definitely am interested in doing that.

After a nice nap I headed out with Andrew, Neil, Peter, JJ, and Nate to the Olympia Restaurant again to have a celebratory dinner. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed down for some re-flooring and so we headed to the nearby restaurant “Stara Praha”. I got a traditional Czech potato soup (“Bramboracka”), beef goulosh (“Hovezi Gulas”) with dumplings, and a dark beer (“Staropramen Tmave”). It was all tasty but not completely filling. After paying our bill we found out from Nate that Neil had been charged for his ketchup and garlic and the box he used to take home his ribs, and since Nate had to pay for it the guy at the counter said “your friend, he screwed you” which was hilarious.

We all got back on the tram towards the train station, but right as Neil was reaching for the pole to hold on to, the tram sprung to life, and Neil was instantly thrown onto the floor and crumpled into a ball. It was absolutely hilarious to see, and all of the Czech people sitting next to us were laughing too.

In the train station we briefly talked with a Bulgarian woman who was visiting Prague with her friend about how Prague was always grey and where we went to clubs. She was fairly fluent in English and had visited Boston and Washington DC in the United States.

The Beer Factory was really neat, in that you sat at a table as a group with a central tap, and each table could compete against other tables to see who could drink the most, and also the bar as a whole could compete against other bars. We played some drinking games and enjoyed the music. A bit after 11pm a huge group of young Czech teens, probably high schoolers, came in and started partying like crazy. They started an almost mini mosh-pit in the center of the floor and there was some crowd surfing. Czech people really know how to party hard.

We headed back to the hotel and then found out that there was a student bar in the basement floor of the hotel. This bar was pretty big, had 2 different areas a pool table and stuff and served pints of beer for only 25 krona (like $1.05 US!?). This was an astonishing discovery and we lamented over the lost opportunities we would have had if we knew this bar existed when we got here. I headed up to bed soon after.

3/1/09 resume lecture, prague work

At 3pm we had the “Cultural differences and human resources issues in central europe” lecture by Michael Mayer, the Managing Partner of MRI Worldwide – Prague. I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture, as he gave a plethora of relevant and applicable information in the ways for us college kids to approach job interviews, internships, and resumes. He also highlighted some of the differences in hiring and working between the US and Czech Republic.

Nate and I headed out to the city center afterwards to shop for clothes but there wasn't a great selection of deals in the stores there, so we headed back after eating a hot dog from some random stand. I came back, grabbed some Chinese food and worked with my Prague group for about two hours doing practice run throughs of our presentation and fixing issues.